Self-assessment is an assessment approach that
involves learners in evaluating their own achievement and learning outcomes (Fenwick & Parsons, 2009) . Self-assessment
promotes life-long learning by encouraging the student to be a more active, responsible
and reflective participants in learning process. As an assessment tool,
self-assessment has its main strengths in development of evaluative and
critical abilities, independent learning, responsibility, proactivity and
creativity. However, issues such as time constraints, mismatch between learning
and marks should also be addressed before its implementation. (Sluijsmans, Dochy, & Moerkerke, 2014)
While reading through the chapters and journal
articles about self-assessment, I reflected upon my previous experience with
this approach. Assessment as a tool for learning has a great impact on
learner’s development. But it is noticeable from my experience that, once
students submit their work, they typically become disengaged with the learning
process and “move on” to the next task. Although I had tried to make the rubric
explicit and transparent, it seems like many students were still passive
recipients of the assessment outcomes rather than taking the ownership of their
own learning. One semester, I included the grading table as part of the lab
report component, so that, they “had to” assess themselves in the table, and
check their own learning before submission. Many improvements were observed in
this practice. Almost all the submitted reports shown a significant increase in
the score. And some students commented that they felt they had influence and
involvement in their learning.
Why is self-assessment effective? I think effective
learning is heavily impacted by how much meaningful energy learners put in.
Self-assessment fosters students’ feelings of ownership instead of feeling
“being judged”. It signals the students that their experience and judgments are
valued and respected, so that they are willing to take the responsibility and
strive for their own success. At the
same time, their critical thinking skills improve in self-assessment. They
identify their strengths and weaknesses, then seek ways to improve.
The second question is, are the learners able to
assess themselves? Self-assessment may not be suitable for all levels of
learners. (Fenwick & Parsons, 2009) Implementation of
innovative approaches also needs careful thinking of the learner group. Besides,
for self-assessment, the most difficult part may be to determine the grading
criteria. It needs to be informational, open, and explicit with the aims and
standards of learning. (Thomas, Martin, & Pleasants, 2011) The overriding
authority in the assessment may also be maintained as well.
The
concept of self-assessment has given me new insights about assessment
strategies. I think it is a very useful tool especially to prepare our learners
for future learning. I am also planning to use this approach more often in my
practice and there will be a few improvements this time after this week’s
reading. First of all, I will spend sufficient time discussing with students of
my rationale for doing so. This discussion engages student’s thinking about
learning and assessment and also give the student opportunities to seek answers
to their own concerns about this approach. Secondly, in order to support the
students, I will discuss annotated examples of good, average and poor quality
work collaboratively with the students. So that, their judgements are “calibrated”
and their understanding of the criteria is enhanced. Lastly, in addition to the
self-assessed results, I will also provide descriptive feedbacks to their work.
Although self-assessed mark may not be accurate, the goal of assessment is not
just providing the accurate mark, but also to promote learning. From this
sense, I think it will be meaningful to implement this approach into my future teaching
practice.
References
Fenwick,
T., & Parsons, J. (2009). Art of Evaluation, 2nd Edition, A Resource for
Educators and Trainers. Thompson Educational Publishig.
Sluijsmans,
D., Dochy, F., & Moerkerke, G. (2014). The Use of Self-, Peer-, and
Co-assesssment in Higher-Education: A Review of Literature. Wageningen,
Netherlands: Educational Technology Expertise Centre (OTEC) , Open University
of the Netherlands.
Thomas,
G., Martin, D., & Pleasants, K. (2011). Using Self- and Peer-Assessment
to Enhance Students’ Future-Learning in Higher Education. Journal of
University Teaching and Learning Practice, 8(1), Article 5.
